There are a lot of misconceptions. People think coaching is only about one-to-one, when you sit down with another person in front of you. In fact, that kind of mentality is the reason why a lot of leaders are not able to fully dedicate their time to coaching.
Imagine this, if you have a lot of operational tasks that you need to complete, at the same time, your superior, your boss, comes to you with additional crisis or firefighting situations that were not planned in the first place in your schedule. And then suddenly you are required to do coaching.
Well, coaching does not have to be limited to a one-to-one sit down where you are having a coaching conversation with a team member or a subordinate. This is the good news! Coaching techniques can be used in many, many instances and applications when you are running your operation.
Let me give you a specific example; You can use coaching questions when you’re running meetings. The moment you remove your role, your need and your ego to be the person who needs to control the flow and decision-making in the meeting, you can start coaching.
In this example, rather than the typical you telling the people attending your meeting what are the agendas and what are the objectives, you activate the people in the meeting to say what is important to them. The moment you do that, you are exercising the coaching stance. At the same time, you do what you do and do solutioning in the meeting.
If you want to conclude the meeting, using the coaching method, you ask; “I have a list of things that I know we need to complete. I have a list of things that we have agreed upon, but I would like you to summarise what is your main path or takeaway for this meeting.”
Again, when you activate your team member to do the summarizing, they get to tell you how they are digesting or benefiting from the meeting.
So, I want to inspire you to be able to look at coaching, not just from a sit down one-to-one, but from another perspective, where as long as you are using the coaching technique, by asking relevant questions to empower others to be able to make decisions, to think, to reflect, or just merely voice their opinion, then you are effectively exercising applied coaching. Coaching can be infused in your day-to-day, and when you effectively do it, you will find the benefit of running operations more effectively.
Pause & Notice: Applied Coaching in Action Checklist
Rating guide: 5 = Highest (most true for you) 1 = Lowest (least true for you)
☐ Do I view coaching as a leadership approach rather than a separate activity that requires extra time?
☐ During meetings, do I ask questions that invite others to contribute their thoughts, priorities, and ideas?
☐ Do I create opportunities for team members to think, reflect, and participate instead of providing all the answers?
☐ When concluding discussions or meetings, do I encourage others to summarize key takeaways and next actions?
☐ Am I intentionally using coaching questions throughout my daily operations to empower ownership, accountability, and decision making?
